Sidebar: Sunday School 8/23/20

Sharing, without edits, commentary from Jake Tapper yesterday at the end of CNN's State of the Union.

The Democrats labored mightily this last week to emphasize Joe Biden's vast reservoir of empathy, qualities attested to by Democrats and Republicans, celebrities, and ordinary citizens alike.

Perhaps no one testimony was more moving however than that offered by 13-year-old Brayden Harrington, a stutterer whom Biden, who also battles that affliction, has taken the time to help.

(BEGIN CLIP) BRAYDEN HARRINGTON, 13-YEAR-OLD BOY BIDEN MET IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president. (END CLIP)

TAPPER: Roughly 3 million Americans battle stutters. And whether or not you're going to vote for Joe Biden it's empirically a positive thing that his rise has given so many of our fellow Americans confidence and inspiration, as opposed to how President Trump talks about the neurological problem, if he can use it to attack Joe Biden.

(BEGIN CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Biden is angry. Everything is anger. Jesus (ph). (Inaudible). And that's what happens when you can't get the words out. (END CLIP)

TAPPER: That callousness, that cruelty even, as characterized by the president's sister in secret recordings, is an affliction not uncommon in the Trump team. Here's the president's daughter-in-law.

(BEGIN CLIP) LARA TRUMP, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S DAUGHTER-IN-LAW: Every time he comes on stage or they turn to him, I'm like Joe can you get it out, let's get the words out, Joe. You kind of feel bad for him. (END CLIP)

TAPPER: This recalls, in many ways, when candidate Trump mocked journalist Serge Kovaleski who has a challenge of his own.

(BEGIN CLIP) TRUMP: Now the poor guy -- you ought to see this guy, 'I don't know what I said. I don't remember.' (END CLIP) 

TAPPER: The president's lack of decency, his lack of humanity, seems to inspire our fellow Americans who battle that affliction. The propensity toward cruelty.

This week the ranks of Republican Congressional nominees who are bigots and conspiracy theorists grew with the victory in Florida in the district that contains Mar-a-Lago of Laura Loomer.

Loomer, a self-described Islamophobe, is so obnoxious she's been banned by Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter after she tweeted in 2018 that quote, someone needs to create a non-Islamic form of Uber or Lyft because I never want to support another Islamic immigrant driver, unquote. Uber and Lyft banned her.

After the Parkland massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School, Loomer accused students who were speaking out against gun violence of quote, reading a screen or notes someone else wrote for them.

In July 2017, Loomer actually celebrated the news that more than 2,000 migrants had died crossing the Mediterranean, saying quote, good, here's to 2,000 more.

Now, you might think anyone, not to mention the President of the United States of America, would condemn someone like this. Instead President Trump tweeted, 'great going Laura. You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet.'

Now, why would the president support an open bigot and conspiracy theorist? Perhaps for the same reason that this week he expressed support for those who subscribe to the deranged beliefs of the QAnon conspiracy theory that a cabal of Satan worshiping, cannibalistic pedophiles run the government.

(BEGIN CLIP) TRUMP: I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. (END CLIP)

TAPPER: This isn't a joke. Those inspired by this QAnon nonsense have actually killed people, kidnapped people. They've been arrested on their ways to commit other acts of mayhem. The FBI considers QAnon a potential domestic terror threat.

So why would the president express support for Loomer or for adherence of QAnon while mocking those who have disabilities? Well, one theory is that the president's view of the world is entirely through this lens of whether or not you support him, hence his reluctance to condemn people who support him and who subscribe to heinous beliefs. There's a long list of them.

And his apparent lack of empathy for people who oppose him, no matter what challenges they may face -- be they disabilities or a stutter or the loss of a loved one in combat or whatever.

Now, empathy and decency are of course not the only measures by which one makes a decision about an election. There is policy and acuity, feelings of safety and security, a host of other factors. But it is pretty clear there's a profound empathy and decency gap between President Trump and Joe Biden.

And what's important to keep in mind at this point in our nation's history, a politician bereft of empathy and decency, that's someone by definition who is willing to literally do anything, to sink to any depth to win.

Thanks for spending your Sunday morning with us. The news continues next.

Yes, "someone by definition who is willing to literally do anything, sink to any depth to win." And someone who lavishes praise on those who lavish him with adoration, each beast feeding the other.

We'll have the chance to see this in action, at all week long, as the Republicans present their platform-less convention, and as the president makes his threatened prime-time appearances the first three nights, from who knows where - as well as from our front yard on Thursday, when he accepts his party's nomination, a cost-savings for us, he said, something we know he doesn't care about, especially since he will be flying to Charlotte and other points in North Carolina today, money be damned.

It's going to be a long week.